#2. The Lives of Others

In a Communist dictatorship, the government spies on its own citizens. An East German official (the late, great Ulrich Mü) is assigned to bug the home of some theater people and in the process gets a dose of conscience. In February, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's poignant, unsettling thriller won an Oscar as the Motion Picture Academy's Best Foreign Language Film. Now it's my favorite foreign language film too.